Ringo Starr

While Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison were busy playing wonderful music and making women swoon on the front lines, Ringo Starr was the steady light that shone behind The Beatles' drum kit. He might not have been the most talented or the most handsome of the bunch, but there's a case to be made that Starr was the Beatle who was always having the most fun. For his easygoing nature, his "Ringoisms" and his eternal role as drummer of the most successful band of all time, Ringo Starr will always have a place in modern musical culture for as long as CDs are still alive -- and as long as we have Rock Band.

Appeal

At the height of Beatlemania, Ringo Starr's big nose and off-color personality made him the unlikeliest of sex symbols. What he perceived to be his shortcomings were suddenly sexy, and he became a favorite for millions of female fans. Ringo Starr's following was so intense that he tried to keep his girlfriend, Maureen Cox, a secret out of concern for her safety. They married in 1965, but divorced in 1975 after having three children. Ringo Starr's fans would later chuckle at his post-Beatles forays into acting, but his role in 1981's inept Caveman did introduce him to his current wife (and former Bond girl), Barbara Bach.

Another woman who has been prominent in Ringo Starr's life is Yoko Ono. According to some accounts, Ringo Starr was the only band member besides John Lennon who got on with her well. Legend has it that he offered her and John Lennon a place to stay in the months leading up to their marriage, and after the assassination of John Lennon, Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach were the first to visit Yoko Ono and support her through the tragedy.

Success

Ringo Starr is quick to discount his skills on the drums, saying, "Whenever I hear another drummer, I know I'm no good."

Many of his supporters feel differently, saying that the music of The Beatles wouldn't have become so revered without Ringo Starr's ability to maintain steady musical tempos and appropriately channel the energy of each song. In his popular role with The Beatles, he was not only influential in the creation of his band's music, but also in inspiring future drummers to chase their dreams. Contemporaries like Phil Collins, Dave Grohl, Max Weinberg, and Phil Rudd have all pointed to Ringo Starr as an influence, and while we're tempted to ban the music of Phil Collins for all eternity, we're most certainly grateful to have the others.

Though he has parlayed his fame into other ventures like Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, the legendary bad movie Sextette, and television's Thomas the Tank Engine, Ringo Starr's legacy will always be as a Beatle. His contributions to the band went beyond the drums and into singing and songwriting, most notably on efforts like "Don't Pass Me By," "A Little Help From My Friends" and "Yellow Submarine." He can also be thanked for coming up for the iconic Beatles title, "A Hard Day's Night," which was just one of his many "Ringoisms."

Ringo Starr Biography

The only member of The Beatles who didn't use his real name, Ringo Starr was given the name Richard Starkey at birth and spent his earliest years trying to avoid death and bad luck. An appendicitis infection at age 6 knocked him into a near-fatal coma, and when he finally recovered, he fell from his hospital bed and was out of commission for another six months. As a teenager, he spent two more years in the hospital after developing a lung infection. Not able to attend school on a regular basis, his medical issues forced him out of public education for good at 15, and all he got for his hospital stays was a lousy batch of lifetime food allergies.

When he was back to working order, Ringo Starr wasn't able to find a steady job. He tried to become useful in the fields of engineering and railway work, but neither of those took, so he played music instead. Using a drum kit from his stepfather, Harry Greaves, he started playing in The Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group and later, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. Upon joining the latter group when they were called The Raving Texans, he adopted Ringo Starr as a stage name, since he regularly wore rings and the name had a cowboy feel to it.

ringo starr joins the beatles

In 1960, Ringo Starr met the members of a musical group called The Beatles. The resulting friendship led him to fill in occasionally for their drummer, Pete Best, but in 1962, he was asked to take over drumming duties for good. Ringo Starr accepted the invitation, and Pete Best would later earn the dubious distinction of being "the unluckiest man in the world." At first, Starr found it difficult to mesh with his more experienced bandmates, but the group bonded in time. As the band solidified its status as musical icons, lead Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney came to write songs that were based on his off-kilter expressions ("A Hard Day's Night"), and wrote other tunes ("With a Little Help From My Friends") that were specifically tailored to Ringo Starr's vocal range. As a drummer, his popularity and consistency on the kit would bring added respect and popularity for drummers as a whole.

When he wasn't drumming along to the latest Beatles tune, Ringo Starr was busy embracing acting. He had lead roles in the Beatles film Help! and sang the title song for the animated classic, Yellow Submarine. Outside of films featuring the Fab Four, Ringo Starr also acted in a number of films that came to be cult favorites like 1969's The Magic Christian (featuring Roman Polanski and a few members of Monty Python) and the 1971 Western, Blindman, where he played a Mexican villain. After The Beatles disbanded, Ringo Starr continued acting, but he wasn't the best judge of quality. He had a supporting role alongside Mae West, Farrah Fawcett and Raquel Welch in the 1978 misfire Sextette, and took the lead in the critically-maligned prehistoric romantic 1981 comedy Caveman. Ringo Starr enjoyed greater post-Beatle success as a recording artist with solo albums like 1973's Ringo, which included his own material like the hit song "Photograph," and also featured the other ex-Beatles on separate songs.

ringo starr participates in the beatles anthology and beatles rock band

Through the 1980s, Ringo Starr remained visible in the entertainment world, especially in his native England. Starting in 1984, he served as the narrator of the popular animated family series, Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, and in 1989, he launched his own super group of musical legends, Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Five years later, he reteamed with the surviving members of his previous super group, The Beatles, for The Beatles Anthology and more importantly, two new top 10 singles ("Free as a Bird" and "Real Love") that combined old demo recordings from the late John Lennon with new instrumentation and vocals from Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and George Harrison.

Fifteen years after The Beatles Anthology, Ringo Starr is as cherished as ever, and so are The Beatles. A member of the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame since 2002, Ringo Starr still performs with his all-star band, and still shows up in key areas of pop culture. His solo hit, "Photograph," was featured on the soundtrack of the Judd Apatow-Adam Sandler-Seth Rogen collaboration, Funny People, and he offered his creative input into the development of the Beatles-themed video game, Beatles Rock Band. The game's release in the fall of 2009 brought with it the video game reincarnation of Beatlemania, and the hope that it would inspire a whole new set of future drummers.